Brainerd, MN weekend!

What a weekend! We spent a few days in Brainerd, MN at Maddens Resort on Gull Lake, and we had a great time. On our way home, we got to make a quick stop in Minneapolis to have lunch and do a little shopping in Uptown -- and most importantly see my sister, brother-in-law, and our amazing little MN nephews. They are getting so grown up, and Owen is just HILARIOUS! And Preston's totally his favorite ever, which is cute to see. Jameson's almost 2 years old and still loves to snuggle, which is so precious. We left Thursday morning around 7am and got home last night around 10pm, and we were absolutely EXHAUSTED! The one BIG bummer of this weekend, was that we didn't get to spend time with either of our amazing dads for Father's Day. :( But we are definitely planning some belated Father's Day get-togethers -- our dads mean the world to us.

 

Preston headed back to work right away this morning, but I'm spending the day catching up on laundry, spoiling our kitties (who are a little resentful that we left them for so long -- I took them out on their leashes for OVER an hour, so I think they may have forgiven me now. And with the sun shining so beautifully, it was a great time for me to be out in the sun and water my garden too.)

 

Anyway, we had tons of fun but were SO, incredibly busy with meetings and activities and driving and eating I didn't take as many pictures as I normally do (so disappointed in myself.) But not completely failing at living up to my reputation, I did snap a couple when I remembered my camera and we looked halfway decent. So, here's my photo diary from the weekend. :) Enjoy!

 

 

when life gives you rain... make muffins

I truly am grateful we've been getting all this amazing rain. It was so miserable last summer when all the lawns were dead and flowers shriveled up the day after you planted them. And even more importantly, I know the lack of rain put an enormous amount of stress on our nation's farmers, who we are obviously incredibly indebted to.

 

But although I know we need rain and it's a blessing, it has been dampening my spirit a little lately.

 

I mean, enough is enough already.

 

So you know the old saying... When life gives you lemons, make lemonade? Well I don't know what it is about baking that brightens my spirit on a dreary day -- but it does.

 

So when life gives me rainy day after rainy day after rainy day, I make muffins. (And brownies. And cookies.)  

Ocho Rios, Jamaica Photo Diary!!!

Well, another rainy day. I don't really want to even talk about that. So moving on...

Preston and I have two digital picture frames that we've had for... months or maybe years... that we never get around to loading pictures on. So, since I'm finished with laundry, dishes, and cleaning our bathrooms -- and I'm a little bored now being stuck inside -- I'm taking a little time today to finally get that project done.

While I was deciding what pictures to load on them, I ran across the pictures from our honeymoon we took almost 4 years ago to Jamaica. I don't have them posted on Facebook and hadn't looked at them in years, so it was fun (and at times funny) going through them. I thought I'd share some of them with you, since I love writing about travel in general. :)

nothing says summer like.......

... a good old-fashioned picnic.

 

So yesterday, after church, we filled our picnic basket to the point of overflowing and headed outside. Unfortunately it's not quite nice enough yet to hit the pool or beach....... So we're patiently waiting and trying to make the most of the weather we have been having -- which has been very unremarkable so far this summer.

saturday night fever... and e-cards

 

Am I the only one who had no idea what that phrase (the title of this post) meant (other than being a movie title), until I google-ed it (and found the answer linked to a yahoo page)?